This is excellent news. Legitimate, absolutely, great news. It should not have been so long in coming.

(From The Washington Free Beacon)

The U.S. House passed Right to Try legislation on Tuesday that gives the terminally ill access to experimental drugs showing efficacy in clinical trials but not yet approved by the FDA.

The bill now awaits President Donald Trump’s signature and he has indicated he will sign it.

The House passed the legislation by a vote of 250-169, largely along party lines, though 22 Democrats voted with Republicans to pass the bill. All the no votes were Democrats.

“This legislation, introduced only last week, is an egregious attempt by a libertarian think tank to undermine the ‘gold standard’ drug approval process at the Food and Drug Administration,” said Rep. Frank Pallone (D., NJ) on the House floor.

Wow what a load of total bull. This bill (soon to be law) may save lives. It likely will. It offers hope to many who have little hope. But this congressman is more concerned about the bureaucracy at the FDA than with dying patients.

]]>https://www.ac2news.com/2018/05/right-to-try-passes-house-trump-expected-to-sign-right-to-try-gives-terminally-ill-access-to-experimental-drugs/feed/0When the CIA Infiltrated a Presidential Campaign (LBJ was a son of a gun)https://www.ac2news.com/2018/05/when-the-cia-infiltrated-a-presidential-campaign-lbj-was-a-son-of-a-gun/
https://www.ac2news.com/2018/05/when-the-cia-infiltrated-a-presidential-campaign-lbj-was-a-son-of-a-gun/#respondWed, 23 May 2018 18:36:43 +0000https://www.ac2news.com/?p=72527But Goldwater knew how to carry a gun.

Politico is still trying to poo poo the “deep state” thing. (One figures that it almost must being the publication that it is.) But the attached article is an interesting bit of history.

(From Politico)

Over a six-week period in the late summer of 1964, Hunt deployed Continental Press staff to undertake a new type of project: infiltrating the presidential campaign of Barry Goldwater on behalf of President Lyndon Johnson.

Politico is still trying to poo poo the “deep state” thing. (One figures that it almost must being the publication that it is.) But the attached article is an interesting bit of history.

(From Politico)

Over a six-week period in the late summer of 1964, Hunt deployed Continental Press staff to undertake a new type of project: infiltrating the presidential campaign of Barry Goldwater on behalf of President Lyndon Johnson.

There is some dispute about whose idea this was. In a memoir published in 2007, Hunt claimed the idea to spy on Goldwater originated in the White House. Johnson, had, Hunt claimed, “become obsessed with obtaining his competitor’s plans.” Having come to office through tragedy, and deeply resenting suggestions that he wasn’t up to the job, Johnson yearned for a blow-out victory in 1964’s presidential race…

…Whether the impetus came from the White House or Langley, it is clear that Hunt arranged the infiltration of the Goldwater campaign headquarters. “My subordinates volunteered inside, collected advance copies of position papers and other material, and handed them over to CIA personnel,” Hunt wrote. Hunt’s assets included a secretary on Goldwater’s campaign staff who provided advance copies of speeches and press releases. A female CIA employee who worked from the Continental Press offices would pick up the material and deliver it to Cooper.

LBJ wasn’t squeamish about using the inside information, and he did so in a blunt fashion that must have made CIA officers cringe. Goldwater campaign staff noticed that the Johnson campaign had the unnerving habit of responding to points in their candidate’s speeches before he had delivered them. Johnson didn’t seem to care that his actions made clear to Goldwater that he was being spied on.

Oh LBJ, you were just not a good president.

And I love that at the end of the article Politico explains that Goldwater kept the spying he thought was going on quiet and that that was somehow some sort of noble move. In contrast of course to Trump who is airing the deep state dirty laundry.

That is a scary statistic. $400 isn’t a huge sum. But for many it might be the difference between scraping by and falling behind.

If this stat is true, and I sense that it likely is, one can understand why so many people are given to utopian visions of an all pervasive welfare state. Insecurity breeds all sorts of nasty things in the human psyche and one of those things is a tendency to look for answers from “leaders”

That is a scary statistic. $400 isn’t a huge sum. But for many it might be the difference between scraping by and falling behind.

If this stat is true, and I sense that it likely is, one can understand why so many people are given to utopian visions of an all pervasive welfare state. Insecurity breeds all sorts of nasty things in the human psyche and one of those things is a tendency to look for answers from “leaders” who promise things like “free” college or other taxpayer financed programs.

We have restricted commerce in this country for too long. We’ve made it hard to start a business. We’ve attached expensive licenses to all sorts of occupations. We’ve expanded welfare of all forms further encouraging dependency on one’s fellow citizens who are in turn forced to pay higher taxes.

All the while the political class, the crony class, continues to do well.

Fundamentally we have sapped too much of the economic lifeblood of the day to day economy. We have restricted it too much. The engine must be allowed to breathe if we expect it to create wealth.

If we don’t let the economy breathe desperate people are going to look to the state more and more for salvation.

(From CNN Money)

Four in ten Americans can’t, according to a new report from the Federal Reserve Board. Those who don’t have the cash on hand say they’d have to cover it by borrowing or selling something.

The bright side? That’s an improvement from half of adults being unable to cover such an expense in 2013. The number has been ticking down each year since.

Overall, the financial situation of American households has improved during the past five years, according to the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households report. It shows that in 2017, 74% of adults reported feeling at least “okay” financially, an increase of 10 percentage points from the first survey four years earlier.

“This year’s survey finds that rising levels of employment are translating into improved financial conditions for many but not all Americans,” Federal Reserve Board Governor Lael Brainard said in a press release, “with one-third now reporting they are living comfortably and another 40% reporting they are doing okay financially.”

It’s a private organization. It can do what it wants and it is pretty obvious that the kneeling thing was hurting the NFL brand profoundly. For many fans it wasn’t a protest against police violence but a protest against the fans themselves, many of whom support Trump.

We have made the point that Facebook and Twitter can do what they want with their platforms since they own the platforms. Sometimes that has meant a rather ugly suppression of discussion and speech.

It’s a private organization. It can do what it wants and it is pretty obvious that the kneeling thing was hurting the NFL brand profoundly. For many fans it wasn’t a protest against police violence but a protest against the fans themselves, many of whom support Trump.

We have made the point that Facebook and Twitter can do what they want with their platforms since they own the platforms. Sometimes that has meant a rather ugly suppression of discussion and speech. We’ve seen it. But in the end it is the social media company’s prerogative. If Facebook and Twitter want to alienate a large portion of their user base, they can do that. But as we’ve seen the market has actually worked some of these issues out over the last couple of months. (We’ll see how it goes.)

Likewise the NFL can ban kneeling during the national anthem. If it alienates players and fans then it will pay at the ticket window. On the other hand if the NFL allows its employees to alienate the people who buy the tickets and merchandise it will pay also. Likely much more.

It looks like the NFL has worked out this equation.

(From Fox News)

The NFL adopted a policy that would fine teams and league personnel did not “stand show respect for the flag and the Anthem,” the league announced Wednesday.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement that the policy was approved “in concert with the NFL”s ongoing commitment to local communities and our country.”

]]>https://www.ac2news.com/2018/05/the-nfl-bans-kneeling/feed/0The Collapse of the (Russian) Collusion Narrativehttps://www.ac2news.com/2018/05/the-collapse-of-the-russian-collusion-narrative/
https://www.ac2news.com/2018/05/the-collapse-of-the-russian-collusion-narrative/#respondWed, 23 May 2018 17:06:36 +0000https://www.ac2news.com/?p=72504“The statute under which Robert Mueller’s investigation is operating does not give him an open and unaccountable mandate like the old special prosecutors had, and he has wildly exceeded his remit.”

It should be noted that what appears to be a FBI/CIA collusion narrative is just coming to the fore however as new evidence comes to light. How insane is it that we’d have known nothing of what happened with Brennan and Clapper and company had Hillary been elected?

]]>“The statute under which Robert Mueller’s investigation is operating does not give him an open and unaccountable mandate like the old special prosecutors had, and he has wildly exceeded his remit.”

It should be noted that what appears to be a FBI/CIA collusion narrative is just coming to the fore however as new evidence comes to light. How insane is it that we’d have known nothing of what happened with Brennan and Clapper and company had Hillary been elected? Think about that. It almost happened.

It is now clear that Russian attempts at interference in the 2016 election, though somewhat outrageous, were ineffectual, unconnected with any particular party, a small effort given what a country of Russia’s resources and taste for political skullduggery and chicanery is capable of, and minor compared with the influence many countries, including the United States, have sometimes exercised in the elections of other countries. No serious person could find anything in the conduct of the president that could be construed as obstruction of justice, the all-purpose catch-all of American prosecutors, who can conjure that charge from the most mundane acts.

The Trump-impeachers, shuffling grimly forward into the desert like Old Testament slaves to the chant of the ineffable millionaire congresswoman Maxine Waters: “Impeach 45!” will perish in the sand. The vultures will pick their bones in an Ozymandian setting. No president has ever been impeached and removed successfully (though Andrew Johnson, who was not guilty of anything, escaped removal by only one vote in 1868). The required “high crimes and misdemeanors” the Constitution stipulates, have never been clearly defined, but apparently did not include President Clinton’s likely untruthfulness to a grand jury. After two years of exhaustive legal investigation accompanied by intense media innuendos about everything President Trump and his family have done more ambitious than putting on their shoes in the morning (unlike the Clinton case and much closer to the relentless media badgering and defaming of Richard Nixon in the Watergate affair), there is nothing to impeach with, or about.

Remember, The National Review ran this cover right after Trump’s inauguration.

As we often say, we have plenty of problems with Mr. Trump. That Chinese real estate deal in Indonesia for instance looks pretty crony to us. (Even if it’s not it still looks bad.) However, right now the most important story in the country, at least over the medium term, is the extent to which official Washington was working to undermine, and perhaps even remove a duly elected president.

A classic case of “the pretense of knowledge”, as economist FA Hayek put it. A healthy skepticism of “experts,” is generally wise.

]]>https://www.ac2news.com/2018/05/did-the-food-pyramid-make-us-fat-video/feed/0Gun control support fades three months after Florida massacrehttps://www.ac2news.com/2018/05/gun-control-support-fades-three-months-after-florida-massacre/
https://www.ac2news.com/2018/05/gun-control-support-fades-three-months-after-florida-massacre/#respondWed, 23 May 2018 16:00:29 +0000https://www.ac2news.com/?p=72494

Gun owners in this country know what is up at this point. They know that many people do not understand guns, and fear guns, and as such think banning guns is a good idea. American gun owners also know that history is full of government driven tragedies once citizen weapons are taken or relinquished. Citizens have guns. Subjects do not.

Gun owners and 2nd Amendment advocates are keenly aware that the tragedy in Florida was used to mount a full on attack on gun rights,

Gun owners in this country know what is up at this point. They know that many people do not understand guns, and fear guns, and as such think banning guns is a good idea. American gun owners also know that history is full of government driven tragedies once citizen weapons are taken or relinquished. Citizens have guns. Subjects do not.

Gun owners and 2nd Amendment advocates are keenly aware that the tragedy in Florida was used to mount a full on attack on gun rights, even though it appears that law enforcement, the ones who would enforce any gun laws of course, failed at every level. They see and understand the absurdity.

The Parkland, Florida, school massacre has had little lasting impact on U.S. views on gun control, three months after the shooting deaths of 17 people propelled a national movement by some student survivors, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed on Wednesday…

…“The Democrats are way overplaying their hand,” said Larry Ward, president of Political Media Inc, a conservative public relations and consulting company. “If you think you’re going to run on gun control and win in this country, you’re out of your mind.”

]]>https://www.ac2news.com/2018/05/gun-control-support-fades-three-months-after-florida-massacre/feed/0John Brennan’s Plot to Infiltrate the Trump Campaignhttps://www.ac2news.com/2018/05/john-brennans-plot-to-infiltrate-the-trump-campaign/
https://www.ac2news.com/2018/05/john-brennans-plot-to-infiltrate-the-trump-campaign/#respondWed, 23 May 2018 15:30:09 +0000https://www.ac2news.com/?p=72490“Or was this another case of Obama leading from behind — behind a CIA director briefing him daily on “Russian interference” while running an anti-Trump spy ring out of Langley.”

This is is a remarkable report from The American Spectator. Everyone, pro-Trump, anti-Trump, other, should read it. It looks like CIA Director Brennan was doing everything he could to blow up the Trump campaign. And not because he feared Putin’s reach from overseas.

]]>“Or was this another case of Obama leading from behind — behind a CIA director briefing him daily on “Russian interference” while running an anti-Trump spy ring out of Langley.”

This is is a remarkable report from The American Spectator. Everyone, pro-Trump, anti-Trump, other, should read it. It looks like CIA Director Brennan was doing everything he could to blow up the Trump campaign. And not because he feared Putin’s reach from overseas.

The argument has been, since Brennan’s influence has come to light, that Brennan did what he did because he feared Russian influence. But it looks increasingly like “Russian influence” was an excuse to allegedly undermine Trump’s “deplorable” campaign. A campaign that was all about unwinding the Obama years. Years that had treated Brennan quite well.

(From The American Spectator)

As Trump won primary after primary in 2016, a rattled John Brennan started claiming to colleagues at the CIA that Estonia’s intelligence agency had alerted him to an intercepted phone call suggesting Putin was pouring money into the Trump campaign. The tip was bogus, but Brennan bit on it with opportunistic relish.

Out of Brennan’s alarmist chatter about the bogus tip came an extraordinary leak to the BBC: that Brennan had used it, along with later half-baked tips from British intelligence, as the justification to form a multi-agency spy operation (given the Orwellian designation of an “inter-agency taskforce”) on the Trump campaign, which he was running right out of CIA headquarters…

…A veteran of the intelligence community tells TAS that Brennan’s CIA was full of Hillary supporters, some of whom decorated their desks with her campaign paraphernalia. Brennan, whom the press noted would walk the halls of the CIA in an LGBT rainbow lanyard, encouraged this open political atmosphere.* While Brennan knew his spying operation on the Trump campaign was an “exceptionally, exceptionally sensitive” matter (as reported by journalists David Corn and Michael Isikoff), he assumed its machinations would never come to light.

The members of Brennan’s working group at Langley “were just a bunch of out-of-control idiots,” says a former high-ranking CIA official to TAS.He finds it flabbergasting that Brennan would bring CIA officials and FBI officials into the same room to cook up schemes to send a spy into the Trump campaign’s ranks. One of those schemes involved money (Halper paid George Papadopoulos $3,000 for a phony research paper as a way of luring him into a London meeting); another involved sex (Halper’s assistant, with a name out of a bad spy novel, Azra Turk, tried to coax information from Papadopoulos at flirty bar outings, according to the Daily Caller’s Chuck Ross).

Philip Roth, the prize-winning novelist and fearless narrator of sex, death, assimilation and fate, from the comic madness of “Portnoy’s Complaint” to the elegiac lyricism of “American Pastoral,” died Tuesday night at age 85.

Roth’s literary agent, Andrew Wylie, said that the author died in a New York City hospital of congestive heart failure.

Philip Roth, the prize-winning novelist and fearless narrator of sex, death, assimilation and fate, from the comic madness of “Portnoy’s Complaint” to the elegiac lyricism of “American Pastoral,” died Tuesday night at age 85.

Roth’s literary agent, Andrew Wylie, said that the author died in a New York City hospital of congestive heart failure.

He was among the greatest writers never to win the Nobel Prize. But he received virtually every other literary honor, including two National Book Awards, two National Book Critics Circle prizes and, in 1998, the Pulitzer for “American Pastoral.” He was in his 20s when he won his first award and awed critics and fellow writers by producing some of his most acclaimed novels in his 60s and 70s, including “The Human Stain” and “Sabbath’s Theater,” a savage narrative of lust and mortality he considered his finest work.

Amazon’s decision to market a powerful face recognition tool to police is alarming privacy advocates, who say the tech giant’s reach could vastly accelerate a dystopian future in which camera-equipped officers can identify and track people in real time, whether they’re involved in crimes or not.

It’s not clear how many law enforcement agencies have purchased the tool, called Rekognition, since its launch in late 2016 or since its update last fall,

Amazon’s decision to market a powerful face recognition tool to police is alarming privacy advocates, who say the tech giant’s reach could vastly accelerate a dystopian future in which camera-equipped officers can identify and track people in real time, whether they’re involved in crimes or not.

It’s not clear how many law enforcement agencies have purchased the tool, called Rekognition, since its launch in late 2016 or since its update last fall, when Amazon added capabilities that allow it to identify people in videos and follow their movements almost instantly.

The American Civil Liberties Union and other privacy advocates on Tuesday asked Amazon to stop marketing Rekognition to government agencies, saying they could use the technology to “easily build a system to automate the identification and tracking of anyone.”

Iran on Wednesday kept up a drumbeat of opposition to U.S. demands for sweeping change in its foreign policy and nuclear program, and Tehran’s ally Damascus dismissed out of hand a U.S. call for a withdrawal of Iranian forces from Syria.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Pompeo had repeated old allegations against Tehran “only with a stronger and more indecent tone”.

Iran on Wednesday kept up a drumbeat of opposition to U.S. demands for sweeping change in its foreign policy and nuclear program, and Tehran’s ally Damascus dismissed out of hand a U.S. call for a withdrawal of Iranian forces from Syria.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Pompeo had repeated old allegations against Tehran “only with a stronger and more indecent tone”.

“Mr Pompeo and other U.S. officials in the current administration are prisoners of their wrong illusions, prisoners of their past and have been taken hostage by corrupt pressure groups,” he told state television.

In Damascus, Syria’s deputy foreign minister dismissed the notion of a withdrawal of Iranian forces.

“Whether Iranian forces or Hezbollah withdraw or stay in Syria is not up for discussion because it’s the (business) of the Syrian government,” Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen TV cited Faisal Mekdad as saying.

NFU President Roger Johnson wrote to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt on May 22, urging EPA to immediately institute a waiver for summertime sales of E15.

Johnson noted that year-round use of E15 would have significant benefits for farmers, the economy, energy independence, and the environment. An arbitrary restriction on use of E15 in summer months is limiting the amount of ethanol that can be blended into the nation’s transportation fuel supply.

NFU President Roger Johnson wrote to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt on May 22, urging EPA to immediately institute a waiver for summertime sales of E15.

Johnson noted that year-round use of E15 would have significant benefits for farmers, the economy, energy independence, and the environment. An arbitrary restriction on use of E15 in summer months is limiting the amount of ethanol that can be blended into the nation’s transportation fuel supply. While EPA has been actively working on allowing year-round use of E15 since October 2017, and President Trump committed to allowing an E15 waiver earlier this year, EPA has yet to take any action or provide any time table as to when a waiver can be expected. This delay in issuing a waiver is threatening to upend any potential benefits of a waiver in the upcoming summer months of 2018.

Evgeny Freidman, a business partner of President Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen, is complying with the government to aid prosecutors involved in state or federal investigations, a new report Tuesday says.

Freidman, the so-called “Taxi King,” is a Russian immigrant and has been an associate of Cohen’s in the taxi industry. On Tuesday, he pleaded guilty to a single count of evading $50,00 worth of taxes,

Evgeny Freidman, a business partner of President Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen, is complying with the government to aid prosecutors involved in state or federal investigations, a new report Tuesday says.

Freidman, the so-called “Taxi King,” is a Russian immigrant and has been an associate of Cohen’s in the taxi industry. On Tuesday, he pleaded guilty to a single count of evading $50,00 worth of taxes, agreeing to help prosecutors as part of his plea deal, according to the New York Times.

The Times reports that Freidman was disbarred in New York on May 1 and had faced four counts of criminal tax fraud and one grand larceny charge.

The report comes after Cohen’s home and office were raided by the FBI in April, where agents seized computers, phones, and other materials of Cohen’s.

Four states — Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky and Texas — held primary voting Tuesday, further setting the stage for midterm elections this fall, as well as making history.

In Georgia, Stacey Abrams became the first black woman to win the nomination of a major party for governor. In Texas, Lupe Valdez became the first Latina to have that opportunity.

Abrams, a former state legislator in Georgia, easily won the Democratic primary with more than 76 percent of the vote.

This fall, Abrams’ Republican opponent will be either Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle or Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp. Cage won 40 percent and Kemp got 25.6 percent Tuesday, so they will compete in a July runoff to decide the GOP nomination.

In Texas, Valdez, a former Dallas County Sheriff, won the Democratic Party nomination with 53 percent of the vote. She beat Andrew White, the son of former Texas Gov. Mark White, who held the office between 1983 and 1987.

The U.S. House of Representatives Tuesday passed a federal prison reform bill aimed at reducing recidivism and allowing inmates to finish their sentences early.

House Representatives voted 360-59 in favor of the First Step Act, sponsored by Reps. Doug Collins, R-Ga., and Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., which looks to establish incentives to decrease the chances an inmate will return to prison after release.

The U.S. House of Representatives Tuesday passed a federal prison reform bill aimed at reducing recidivism and allowing inmates to finish their sentences early.

House Representatives voted 360-59 in favor of the First Step Act, sponsored by Reps. Doug Collins, R-Ga., and Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., which looks to establish incentives to decrease the chances an inmate will return to prison after release.

The bill, backed by President Donald Trump, provides $50 million annually to the Bureau of Prisons for the next five years to provide prison programs including education, drug treatment and job skills training.

Prisoners would be permitted to earn time credits for completing programs in order to serve the remainder of their sentences at a halfway house or in home confinement.

It would also require that inmates be housed within 500 miles of their families when possible, ban the shackling of pregnant women and establish the bureau’s provision of feminine hygiene products as needed as law.